


A Strangled Plan

by thewickedloki



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: my explanation is better than what marvel wants me to believe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 09:06:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11483136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewickedloki/pseuds/thewickedloki
Summary: Loki's mindset during the events leading up to, during, and following the Battle of New York.





	A Strangled Plan

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically how I’m choosing to interpret Loki’s mindset during The Avengers and after, as I am refusing to acknowledge much of the clusterfuck that was the MCU’s interpretation of events after this. Stretching my writing muscles again in preparation of revisiting Inversionverse. And also because my friends are jerks who make me feel feelings.

It is impossible to truly comprehend the depths of one’s own mind until it has been turned inside-out, eviscerated, and cobbled back together with cruel stitches by an unfeeling, ambitious hand. Loki, the one proud prince of Asgard, _the once-king_ , hurtled through the cosmos with the ease of angered words and lofty dreams. Each golden plate of armor felt beaten onto the contours of his body by Mjolnir itself in an alien forge, one far from the warm grasp of Yggdrasil’s branches.

His eyes were not even his any longer, tainted by poison and magic. He had never liked blue.

Loki’s breath scrapes along the insides of his lungs, screaming to be released as soon as it is drawn into the prison of his body. Even his life is a stolen thing, held just out of reach of Hel’s clutches until the titan is finished with his work.

But Loki can feel the talons in his mind, and though he cannot remove them or their poison, he can still wriggle within the trap.

The Tesseract, in place high atop Stark Tower, is as much a diversion for the watching titan as it is for the Midgardians scrambling to stem the tide of Chitauri soldiers pouring down into their world from the great wound in the sky. The Tesseract is not the source of the power driving them all. No, that comes from the great ship on the other side of the portal. And as for his power… the titan has seen to that, has seen that the touch of Loki’s staff would ignite the Tesseract and use its power to amplify his own. It is not the cube that poisons them all; _he has poisoned the cube_.

And then Thor comes, and Loki nearly forgets. _Look around, brother. Look. Open your eyes and see. See what I am doing and why. Do not save me. Save Yggdrasil, not me, you great bumbling oaf. Be a king, not my brother. You are not of my blood. Stop forgetting that._ His knife buries itself to the hilt in Thor’s side, jabbing through the armor to slice through sinew and muscle. Thor will not fall. He will stumble, but not fall. He will continue to fight. Thor can still kill him.

_Please._

When Stark sees the warhead racing toward the city, he turns it upward, toward the portal. Toward the Chitauri. Stark understands, perhaps, or is at the least extraordinarily lucky. Loki can feel the ships being destroyed, his own power ebbing from his broken and battered body as he is surrounded by enemies he might have once called allies. _And you will never know that I intended this,_ he thinks, though whether he directs the sentiment toward Thor or the titan, he cannot be certain.

It is only when Loki is brought back to Asgard, when he sees the shame and horror in his mother’s eyes, _for you are still my mother,_ that he allows himself to regret.


End file.
